Sunday June 10, 2018, 4:23 pm
A Palestinian family was trapped inside their home and forced to leave through a broken window after Israeli occupation forces welded their front door shut in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron this morning.

The incident took place on Al-Shuhada Street in the Old City of Hebron, one of the most heavily militarised streets in the occupied West Bank.

Samer Yusri Zahida told Ma’an that Israeli occupation forces broke into his brother’s house at 8am and forced him and his three other family members into one room.

After detaining the family for a brief period of time, occupation forces broke one of the windows in the house and exited through it, allegedly telling the family that if they want to leave the house they must also exit through the window. Israeli forces then sealed the front door shut.

READ: Israel settlers take over Palestinian home in occupied Hebron

Zahida noted that the window that was broken did not lead to the main road, but to the neighbour’s house.

Locals later opened the house’s main door.

Coordinator of the Human Rights Defenders Association in Hebron, Imad Abu Shamsieh, told Ma’an that Israeli occupation forces have been trying to force the family out since they moved in two weeks ago, in what he said was an “attempt to empty Al-Shuhada Street of all Palestinian residents and provide it to Israeli settlers as a new residence.”

Palestinian residents of Hebron’s Old City face a large Israeli military presence on a daily basis, with at least 20 checkpoints set up at the entrances of many streets, as well as the entrance of the Ibrahimi Mosque itself.

They are also not permitted to drive on Al-Shuhada Street, have had their homes and shops on the street welded shut, and are not allowed to walk on some roads in the Old City.

Sunday June 10, 2018, 4:27 pm
Military order says Palestinians have 96 hours to appeal house demolition.
June 8, 2018

Even if Palestinians fulfill the appeal requirements put in place by military order 1797, Israeli authorities maintain complete authority to proceed with demolition.

Two Jerusalem legal aid organizations will petition the Israeli Supreme Court to overturn a new military order which makes it possible for Israeli forces to demolish Palestinian homes in Area C within 96 hours after delivering demolition orders. The petition follows a formal letter the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC) and the St. Yves Society sent to the Israeli defense ministry on June 4, 2018 in which they argue that the military order “blatantly violates…international law and contravenes existing local legislation.”

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Occupied Territories (COGAT) issued military order 1797 on April 17, 2018. COGAT, under the direct control of the Israeli defense ministry, runs civil affairs in the occupied West Bank. Order 1797 will go into effect on June 19, 2018.

Under the order, COGAT excuses itself from informing Palestinian homeowners directly that their homes are slated for demolition. JLAC and St. Yves explain in a joint press release that Israeli authorities only require demolition orders be placed “next to” relevant structures 96 hours before Israeli forces arrive to execute demolitions.

If a homeowner does catch wind of an impending demolition, he or she must present an approved master plan and building permit to appeal the demolition. Israel’s discriminatory housing policies in the West Bank ensure that this is an almost impossible requirement for the 300,000 Palestinians living in Area C, 60 percent of the West Bank, to fulfill. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), between 2010 and 2014, for example, Israel approved 1.5 percent of building applications in Area C. Israeli authorities, however, routinely approve of settlement master plans and even halt demolitions of settler outposts citing the existence of master plans, JLAC and St. Yves point out. Indeed, since 2017 Israeli officials have approved nearly 14,000 settlement units in the West Bank.

In addition to having to produce an approved master building plan within four days, Palestinian residents of Area C attempting to forestall demolition must prove that construction on their home or home addition has been completed for six months or that the structure has been inhabited for thirty days.

By requiring that Palestinians produce so many documents in such a short period of time, this military order “virtually strips the affected residents of the right to due process and the capacity to challenge the demolition orders through legal avenues, by requiring that objections to the demolition order be accompanied with a valid building permit,” JLAC and St. Yves wrote in their press release. Moreover, COGAT remains the sole arbiter of these appeals. Put differently, even if Palestinians fulfill the appeal requirements put in place by military order 1797, COGAT empowers itself to proceed with demolition anyway.

St. Yves and JLAC emphasize that this new military order violates international law, including Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which defines forcible transfer of occupied populations as a crime against humanity. The order also violates Article 43 of the 1907 Hague Regulations, which requires that an occupying power respect the laws in the country that it occupies. In this case, that means the Jordanian Planning and Construction Law, which allows residents to retroactively legalize home constructions in the face of a demolition order stemming from illegal construction.

One area that may be acutely impacted by this new military order is the E1 corridor, which sits between the Jerusalem municipality’s borders and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. For years, Israeli politicians have proposed incorporating this area, which is in Area C, into the Jerusalem municipality. Such developments are key to maintaining what Israel euphemistically calls a “demographic balance” in Jerusalem, i.e. restricting the Palestinian population to 30 percent of the city’s total population. Palestinian presence in Jerusalem today likely constitutes at least 40 percent of the city’s population.

The Palestinian Authority condemned military order 1797 when it was first announced. “This illegal development would generate more crimes against Palestinian rights of access to a safe and stable living environment and would worsen the already dire conditions of 393,000 Palestinian citizens,” the government said in a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.

Sunday June 10, 2018, 7:54 pm
What right do these Israeli's have to be doing this? Reading the Palestinian Authority has their law against it. Makes me angry to see that the Palestinians aren't protected even in their own homes. Thanks Fly

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